Comments on: 30 Days: Things I’ve Learned So Far

By: Odori Park » Archive » 30 Days: Halfway Home :: A webcomic comedy of culture shock in love, life, and family, by Chris Watkins ::

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:46:38 +0000

[...] personal challenge. Being halfway through, it seems like an appropriate time to share more lessons learned (your mileage may [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:13:03 +0000

Thanks, Tom
It’s probably a bit misleading to suggest I do all my writing in twenty-minute stints over lunch. That’s just the “formal” time. I keep a notebook in my pocket, and collect ideas constantly. Whenever something suddenly gels into a strip in my head, which happens sometimes, I jot that down, too. The lunchtime period is often about finessing notes into a proper script, and doing rough thumbs.

The challenge strips, by the way, won’t start appearing until mid-June What you’re seeing right now was done a few weeks ago. Otherwise, I’d be a constant mass of quivering stress.

By: Tom Galambos

Tom Galambos — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:07:08 +0000

I am most impressed with writing and thumbing over 20 minutes at lunch. I have to drag my ideas into existence over long periods of time, kicking and screaming.
Your newest strips (1 hour experiments) have not suffered in quality. And if I knew anything about Pokemon I would understand today’s strip better.
Keep it up!

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:55:24 +0000

I do have an action I can use to apply the Web template and save out the site strips, but it’s most of use when I’m doing a big batch. I’ll have to consider whether there isn’t some automation I could apply for the overall save-out process, though. I think you’re right–I should be able to turn that whole shebang into an automated action. Thanks!

In just two days, I’ve seen a lot of value in jotting down timing notes as I work. I already had ballpark estimates for my pencils, inking, etc., but now I really know where the time is going.

By: Whitey

Whitey — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:26:41 +0000

More RAM might help. But what about automation/scripts? Is there anything that could be mapped to a few key strokes instead of having to navigate menus?

This is a good exercise. I really don’t know how long my comic pages take me; it would be good to find out, and to figure out where time is being wasted.